Showing posts with label GRANDMA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GRANDMA. Show all posts

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Christmas Traditions

I finally got organised to put up a few Christmas decorations this week.  

I bought a nice holly wreath for our door and a poinsettia for the table on the weekend...but my favourite part was putting up tonight's decorations.  Beautiful crocheted snowflakes, made with love by my Grandma Elsie.  

I'm so glad that I asked her to gift a few of them to me one Christmas.  

I've continued mum's tradition and hang them on the sliding door and on the windows.  It's especially nice to have them in North Vancouver...since there is no snow on the ground!  
They are so pretty.  They make me smile when I look at them.  

Grandma sure was crafty...I really must learn to crochet at some point.  

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Crafty Memories


I found some crafty inspiration today - some cute gift tags on Sublime Stitching’s blog.  I will try to make some of these this week.  I haven’t really done much embroidery in my crafting life… well, I can think of one very memorable embroidery project…
My mum and auntie’s were always very good at thinking of fun crafts for us to make.  Clearly this was a favourite activity for me to do, because I can still remember some of the crafts that we spent hours creating together. 
I remember one summer mum killed two birds with one crafting stone.  A fun summer crafting project, which turned into a Christmas gifts for our grandmas.  Mum is so clever!  What was it? Hand embroidered tea towels.    I’m not sure how this project came about.  Perhaps mum had visions of her children embroidering tea towels with love and that these tea towels would be cherished by our grandmother’s, or perhaps it was to teach us an important lesson about investing time and energy into making a handmade gift for someone special, or … more than likely…it was to keep us out of trouble for a little while, because how much trouble can three girls get into with some tea towels, embroidery floss and needles? I’m pretty sure that we embroidered 2 towels each. 
I remember struggling along, trying to follow the cross stitch pattern.  My stitching wasn’t very good.  
I think I churned out the first one pretty quickly and then mum likely had to hound me to finish the other (I hate to admit).  But, we finally finished and they were sent off to our Grandmas for Christmas.  I have no idea how old I was.  Maybe 8?        
Imagine my surprise when a little while ago, my Grandma W. re-gifted one of these tea towels back to me.  I wonder if she ever used it, because it seems like it's in pretty good shape.  Maybe she decided that it was too nice to use?  Well, I'm happy to report that it is now in circulation at my house!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

2010 – The Year of Craft

I declared to my sisters this morning that 2010 will be 'The Year of Craft’ for me.  To acknowledge this auspicious occasion/day/year, I have decided to create a crafting blog.  As a geeky engineer by day and a crafter by night, this blog will celebrate my crafting alter-ego and be a place for me to explore my craftier side.  Yeah 2010!


The name…Elsie’s Orange Button.  Elsie is my maternal grandmother.  Elsie had an orange button.  My mum was intrigued by this cute little orange button when she was a wee girl, and would always hunt through my grandma’s sewing basket looking for it.  The Orange Button would sometimes disappear, but would then magically reappear.  My mum still has the button - it is lovingly stitched to her pincushion.  


Grandma Elsie was one of the most amazing women I have had the pleasure of knowing and she played a key role in planting the crafting seed in my life. So, the name of my blog is a little tribute to her.